Political Dig

Republicans Just Completed Their Descent To The Dark Side

Over the last 72 hours, the Republican Party has decided to abandon all sense of morality and take a plunge into the dark side of politics by throwing their support behind accused child molester Roy Moore.

The Alabama Senate candidate who faces multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with four women, one of whom was 14 when the incident is alleged to have occurred. But that is not stopping Republicans from endorsing him for the U.S Senate.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump restated his support for Moore. And he is not alone. The Republican National Committee announced it’s once again supporting the embattled Republican Alabama Senate candidate despite the growing national outrage because, in their view, it is better to have a sex predator in the Senate than a Democrat.

“I think we’re going to let the people of Alabama decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate, and then we’ll address the matter appropriately,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Sunday.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch took that rationalization even further on Monday while traveling with Trump in Utah, telling reporters: “I don’t think he had any choice but to do that. You know he needs every Republican he can get so he can put his agenda through. So that’s the only Republican you can possibly get down there.”

“Many of the things he allegedly did are decades ago, Hatch said,” according to CNN. “So it’s hard to — that’s a decision that has to be made by the people in that state.”

In the space of a few days, establishment Republicans have gone from saying they believed the allegations made against Moore and insisting he couldn’t and shouldn’t represent the GOP to leaving it to the people of Alabama to decide and attacking the accusations as decades old.

Why? Simple. Because Moore has denied all of the allegations.

That logic is transparently obvious in Hatch’s comments about Moore and the race. “You know Trump needs every Republican he can get so he can put his agenda through,” is Hatch essentially acknowledging that winning matters more than anything else. Period. Full stop. That any Republican, even one faced with allegations of sexually inappropriate conduct, is better than any Democrat.

So, here’s where we are: While Democrats are preparing to force Al Franken from the Senate this week, the Republican Party has reversed its trajectory on Moore.

The sudden shift has left the party divided. Senator Jeff Flake posted a photo online Tuesday of a $100 check made out to Jones, with the words “Country over Party” scrawled defiantly. “I do think the president is wrong here,” Flake told reporters. “I think it will have negative impacts for the party in the long term.”

“This is a bad decision and very sad day. I believe the women—and RNC previously did too. What’s changed?” wrote Senator Ben Sasse on Twitter. “Or is the party just indifferent?

If those tactics continue, they may well expedite the dissolution of the party, which is increasing torn between its establishment and fringe wings.